Ireland Trip: Day 3 (Scones, Castles And U2)

Friday, April 10, 2009

What better meal for the day after than fish and, er, salad (a healthy twist on a fattening classic)? This was actually the second meal of the day, breakfast being a mixed berry scone (my third of this trip), which the Irish, to my surprise, have seemed to completely master the art of creating. Who knew the scone contained such insights into the meaning of life?

After another fitful night of trying to catch up on some z’s (surprise, it’s hard to get a full night sleep in a hostel), I decided to take a nice non-walking trip north to Malahide Castle.

In use for about 800 years, the castle was just opened up to the public in 1976. After arriving I promptly became detached from my group (unintentional, but probably unconsciously intentional) while I was taking video outside. No worries, I just wandered the castle myself until an irate guard asked what I was doing and who I was with. After attempting to explain who I was and my position with the TheExpeditioner.com, the annoyed and confused guard quickly escorted me to the rest of the group and instructed me not to wander any longer.

On the drive back to Dulbin, we wove our way along the northern coastline and stopped at what is considered to be one of the best views of this part of the Irish coast.

Believe it or not, that spit of land in the foreground is home to Bono and The Edge (this I learned after being told that the neighborhood we had just driven through was home to Larry Mullen — it seems most of Dublin can be described in reference to U2). This is one of those views where I think I should drop everything and go into postcard making.